Yang Lili, Yu Siyi, Zhang Leixiao, Peng Wei, Hu Youping, Feng Fen, Yang Jie
Department of Acupuncture & Tuina, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, Sichuan, 610075, People's Republic of China.
Acupuncture and Brain Science Research Center, Chengdu University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, Chengdu, 610075, People's Republic of China.
Nat Sci Sleep. 2022 Jun 21;14:1175-1186. doi: 10.2147/NSS.S355922. eCollection 2022.
Gender differences in hippocampal and parahippocampal gyrus (HIP/PHG) volumes have been reported in sleep disorders. Therefore, this study investigated the moderating effect of gender on the relationship between chronic insomnia disorder (CID) and the HIP/PHG functional connectivity (FC) network.
For this study, 110 patients diagnosed with CID (43 men and 67 women) and 60 matched good sleep control (GSC) (22 men and 38 women) were recruited. These participants underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging scans, after which a 2 × 2 (diagnosis × gender) analysis of variance was used to detect the main and interactive effect of insomnia and gender on their HIP/PHG FC networks.
Although the main effect of insomnia on the HIP FC network was observed in the bilateral cerebellar tonsil, superior frontal gyrus, and the medial orbitofrontal cortex, effects on the PHG FC network were observed in the bilateral HIP and amygdala. In contrast, the main effect of gender on the HIP FC network was observed in the right cerebellum posterior lobe, the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (DLPFC), and the supplemental motor area. Of note, the interactive effect of both insomnia and gender was observed in FCs between the right HIP and the dorsal anterior cingulate cortex, and then between the right PHG and DLPFC. Moreover, the FC between the right PHG and left DLPFC was positively associated with anxiety scores in the female patients with CID.
Our study identified that gender differences in brain connectivity existed between the HIP/PHG and executive control network in patients diagnosed with CID, these results will eventually extend our understanding of the important role that gender plays in the pathophysiology of CID.
睡眠障碍患者的海马体和海马旁回（HIP/PHG）体积存在性别差异。因此，本研究探讨了性别对慢性失眠障碍（CID）与HIP/PHG功能连接（FC）网络之间关系的调节作用。
本研究招募了110例诊断为CID的患者（43例男性和67例女性）以及60例匹配的良好睡眠对照组（GSC）（22例男性和38例女性）。这些参与者接受了静息态功能磁共振成像扫描，之后采用2×2（诊断×性别）方差分析来检测失眠和性别对其HIP/PHG FC网络的主要和交互作用。
尽管在双侧小脑扁桃体、额上回和眶额内侧皮质观察到失眠对HIP FC网络的主要影响，但在双侧海马体和杏仁核观察到对PHG FC网络的影响。相比之下，在右侧小脑后叶、背外侧前额叶皮质（DLPFC）和辅助运动区观察到性别对HIP FC网络的主要影响。值得注意的是，在右侧海马体与背侧前扣带回皮质之间以及右侧PHG与DLPFC之间的FC中观察到失眠和性别的交互作用。此外，右侧PHG与左侧DLPFC之间的FC与女性CID患者的焦虑评分呈正相关。
我们的研究发现，诊断为CID的患者在HIP/PHG与执行控制网络之间的大脑连接存在性别差异，这些结果最终将扩展我们对性别在CID病理生理学中所起重要作用的理解。
